Of Operations and Operatives
by SabbyStarlight
Summary: Jack's in the hospital, but in typical Jack Dalton style, he's too busy making sure Riley and Mac are taken care of to worry about himself. Just a fluffy little team-as-family fic I felt like we all needed.


**So I've been doing a lot of strictly Mac and Jack stuff lately because that's my favorite to both read and write, but I thought it was about time to add some Riley into the mix again because I love her, and her relationship with Jack. Unlike the writers of the show though, I'm not gonna sacrifice Mac and Jack's friendship to add some Jack/Riley character development.**

It was inevitable, really. The life of a secret agent wasn't exactly an easy one and Jack Dalton had been called a lot of things in his time but cautious wasn't one of them. And he had been warned, years ago, after the first surgery to repair the wrist that had been hurt in that disastrous mission now referred to simply as 'Cairo,' that he would need future operations on it if he continued in his line of work. Quitting wasn't an option, not then, not now; there was still a scrawny blonde kid who needed someone to watch his six. So Jack had strapped on the leather wrist cuff the day he was cleared to remove his brace and reenter the field. It hid the scars, added a little extra stability, but didn't immediately point out his wrist as a weakness. Sure there were days when it flared up, like if a storm was rolling in or if he had thrown a few too many punches the day before, but it generally wasn't a problem.

Thornton had been good about knowing, with just a glance during their post-mission meetings in the war room, when he had pushed himself a little too far and needed to take it easy for a day or two. Looking back now he guessed she had wanted to make sure that nothing would take him out of the field before she was ready to do it herself. Maddy though, had never believed him when he promised that his wrist would not leave him or his team compromised on the job, and after a particularly rough mission had left him breaking out his old wrist brace to deal with the pain, she had scheduled the surgery herself. Which is why Jack found himself sitting in a hospital bed on a morning that he should have been busy saving the world, listing all the reasons that he hated hospital gowns to his partner.

"Seriously, man. They're workin' on my wrist. Why can't I just wear what I wore comin' in?" Jack asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna answer that again." Mac replied with a sigh.

"I know, I know." Jack grumbled. "Hospital protocol, contamination, accessibility, somethin' about magnets. You gave me a whole list of reasons. Don't mean I have to be happy about it."

"Yet you still ask." Mac pointed out.

"Oh just hush." Jack ordered with a small smile. _Phase one._ He thought to himself. _Here goes nothin'._ "I got a favor to ask you. Before Riley gets here."

"Sure, what's up?" Mac asked, his attention piqued.

"Well you know I wasn't too thrilled that she insisted on bein' here to begin with." Jack started.

"One of these days you'll realize that she's gonna do whatever she wants, whether you like it or not." Mac interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Not the point. What I'm gettin' at is it's not that I didn't want her here, I just didn't want her comin' till after it was over. No point in her sittin' out there in that waiting room for hours worryin' herself sick about nothing." Jack continued.

"Jack, Riley will be fine. Maybe you should try worrying about yourself for once." Mac retorted.

"Not a chance." Jack smiled, but it quickly faded. "And she's not as tough as she wants everyone to think."

"Okay, fine. What do you want me to do?" Mac asked. "Convince her not to stay? Cause I don't think there's any way that's happening."

"Naw, I know there isn't. Just, I don't know, man. Be there for her? I may be wrong, but I just have a feelin' that once I'm back there, that dam's gonna break. It was harder on her than she let on, bein' there for Bozer all those weeks." Jack ended his speech with a sigh. "But man, if I know you're there checkin' up on her? Well now that's just one thing off my already full plate."

"Of course I'll be there for her if she needs me." Mac replied automatically. He would have been even if Jack hadn't said anything but he would keep a closer eye out for anything that seemed off. His brow furrowed. "I haven't noticed anything wrong, though."

"Yeah well, as with most things, I have way more experience in this department than you, pal." Jack ended the conversation on a teasing note, earning an eye roll from his partner.

"Yeah… I just heard the last part of that but I'm not sure I even wanna know what you two are talking about…" Riley's said as she entered the room.

Jack breathed a silent sigh of relief at how close of a call that had been but quickly changed his face into a smile. _Well that'll keep Mac busy. One down, one to go._ He thought to himself.

"Yeah, probably best you didn't hear all of it." He said with a wink, allowing her to assume whatever she wanted, knowing that her thoughts were far away from the actual content of his and Mac's little talk.

"New subject." Mac declared, though his eyes stayed on Riley for a few seconds longer than normal, looking for any signs that Jack's impending operation was having any negative effects on the young woman.

"You nervous?" She asked as she made her way, comfortably confident as usual, across the room and wrapped her arms around Jack in a hug.

"Hell no." Jack declared, looking offended that she dared ask such a question. "I've been shot at by terrorists, tortured on three different continents, and landed a plane…"

"With no wings and no engine." Mac and Riley finished for him in tandem. "We know, Jack." Mac continued, rolling his eyes. "Doesn't mean you can't be nervous."

"Well I'm not." Jack assured his partner as he moved over on the bed, making space for Riley to sit down beside him. "I'm goin' a little stir crazy sittin' here waiting." He admitted. "And I'm not lookin' forward to the weeks I'm gonna be off work waitin' on this damn thing to heal, but I'm fine."

"Months." Mac corrected. "Six to eight weeks, Jack. You need to prepare yourself for the chance that this could take you out of the game for two months."

"Those, those right there, Riley, are what's called fightin' words." He said, pointing an accusatory finger at his partner, wincing as the movement pulled on his sore wrist.

"Hey, stop using that hand." She ordered, nudging Jack's shoulder until he listened.

"I'll be fine." Jack insisted, good hand reaching over and rubbing at the aching joint. "I'll be back in the saddle before you know it."

Mac rolled his eyes. "We'll see." He said with a shrug, not wanting to start an argument.

"Yeah, you'll see." Jack insisted, determined to have the last word.

"Is that hurting?" Riley asked changing the subject upon seeing Jack's hand still covering his wrist.

"Yeah, a little." Jack admitted, the words causing Mac's eyebrows to shoot up into his blonde hair.

"Well you don't have to look so surprised!" Jack said with a grin. "No point lyin' about it." He shrugged. "It hurts. I'm here to fix it. End of story."

Mac and Riley exchanged concerned looks.

Jack groaned. "Wrong thing to say, huh? Now I've got ya both worried."

"Well, I mean, you tend to keep your mouth shut when you're hurt to avoid a trip to medical…" Mac reminded him.

"One time!" Jack exclaimed. "I get shot one time and don't mention it and y'all never let me live it down."

"Um, yeah, pretty much!" Riley shot back.

"You get mad if I 'forget' to tell you I'm hurt, you freak out if I admit to it. There's just no pleasin' you two!" Jack announced, throwing his hands in the air in frustration and wincing at the pain shooting through his wrist.

"Okay, enough." Mac declared. "Stop moving before you hurt yourself even more."

"Fine." Jack agreed with a huff. _Better get the second part of this plan on the road before I run outta time…_ he thought. "Since I'm not allowed to move, can you reach me my phone?" He asked, nodding to where it sat on the bedside table next to Mac's chair.

Mac handed the phone over and Jack quickly sent the text that he had typed out earlier that morning to Bozer, making a mental note of the time. If he did what Jack had asked he would be calling Mac with a very lengthy question in exactly ten minutes.

Sure enough, after ten minutes of small talk and one incident of Riley hitting Jack on the arm for flirting with the pretty blonde nurse who came in to set up his IV, Mac's phone rang.

"Hey, Boze. What's…" Mac answered and almost immediately Bozer's voice could be heard in a panicked yell coming through the phone. Jack fought back a smile. _My man._

"Bozer. Calm down." Mac ordered standing up from his seat and heading out towards the hallway. A hurried "What do you mean you can't get it turned off?" was the last bit of the conversation Jack could hear before the door shut behind his partner.

"You think everything's alright?" Riley asked worriedly, her eyes staring at the closed door. Jack found himself wondering, not for the first time since their team gotten been back together, just how close she and Bozer had gotten after he had been hurt.

"I'm sure it's fine." Jack assured. "Listen. I'm kinda glad he needed Mac," He began. "Gives me a chance to talk to you."

"What about?" Riley's finally turned her attention away from where she had been trying to overhear Mac and Bozer's conversation.

"I need a favor." Jack said, for the second time that morning. "I'm sure Mac would tan my hide if he knew I was askin' you this, but I need you to keep an eye on him while I'm back there gettin' this taken care of." He found his good hand absentmindedly rubbing at the strip of white skin normally hidden from view by his wrist cuff.

"What do you mean, 'keep an eye on him?''' Riley asked.

"You've noticed by now, I'm sure, that when that kid gets upset or worried about somethin' he kinda curls up in a shell? Shuts everyone out?" Jack asked.

"Yeah." Riley replied, shooting a quick glance at the door, Mac and Bozer's conversation forgotten, this time she was just hoping that Mac didn't walk back in yet.

"Well now, this time around I'm not gonna be there to check up on him. Make sure he's alright." Jack's eyes met Riley's. "Which is where you come in."

"I don't get it. What do you need me to do?" She asked.

"Nothin' really. Just be there. Try to keep him from gettin' himself lost in that big brain of his." Jack pressed on. "My job is to take care of that kid. Has been for years. And right now I can't do that."

"Hey," Riley said softly, taking Jack's hand in her own. "Of course I'll do whatever I can. We're a team. All of us."

Jack smiled at the young woman and gave her hand a squeeze before letting go. "Thanks, Ri. That's a big weight off my shoulders."

The door opened and Riley nodded at Jack, signaling the end of their conversation. "Everything alright?" She asked Mac.

"Yeah, there was just a malfunction with one of the machines in the lab. It wouldn't shut off for some reason." Mac said, his face puzzled, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

"You get it fixed?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, it was the weirdest thing." Mac replied. "All he had to do was…"

Jack never got to hear the end of the story because a sharp knock on his door interrupted the tale of Bozer's stalling. A nurse, not the same pretty blonde, but a redhead this time, but just as pretty, poked her head around the door facing. "Ready to go get that wrist taken care of, Mr. Dalton?" She asked with a smile.

"Jack, just Jack, please." He drawled, returning her smile and causing Mac and Riley to share an eye roll. "And I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Alright then Jack, I'll just give you all a minute and then I'll come back and take you down to get this show on the road." She said with a wink as she left the room, obviously having fallen victim to Jack's charm.

The room fell quiet for a moment before Mac broke the silence. "You good?" he asked, searching his partner's face for any sign of the nerves that he knew tended to wait till the last possible moment to hit the older man.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, I'm good." He assured his partner, and somehow, Mac believed him.

"You're gonna be fine." Riley said as she wrapped her arms around him in another hug, the words sounding more like a threat than a reassurance.

"Damn right I am." He promised, pressing a quick kiss to her temple before she broke out of the hug.

"We'll see ya on the other side." Mac said, with a quick pulse of the hand he had placed on Jack's shoulder.

Jack nodded in confirmation as the nurse rejoined them. "Now you remembered we're not allowed to say goodbyes, right?" She asked. "Only 'see ya laters?"

"Yes ma'am." Jack assured.

"Then let's do this." she said, walking around Jack's bed and releasing the brakes on the wheels as another nurse, a guy this time, close to Mac's age and not nearly as pretty, in Jack's opinion, was waved into the room to push Jack down to surgery.

Jack tossed Mac one more fist bump as he was being wheeled out of the room. He sighed in relief once he was out of Mac and Riley's view, knowing that they would be fine.

"Those are some great kids you've got there." The redheaded nurse who was walking beside him commented, glancing back down the hallway at Mac and Riley making their way to the waiting room in the opposite direction.

"Yeah they are." Jack agreed, not bothering to correct her on the technicality of them being 'his' kids. "The best."

She walked a few steps ahead of Jack's bed and hit the button for the elevator, moving aside while the male nurse got everything situated in the tight space. "It's good that they have each other," She continued, "That they're not watching you go through this alone." Jack smiled as the elevator doors closed. "That was the plan."

 _Mission accomplished._

 **The show seems to have forgotten (although episode three gave me a little sliver of hope) that everyone in their little family can actually get along. There's no point in sacrificing one relationship to develop another. So I decided to dig this little fic out and finish it up. It just felt relevant with some of the writing that's been going on. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed!**


End file.
